Metering devices are deployed at businesses, homes, and other premises for measuring consumption of resources, such as electricity, water, and gas. Some metering devices provide only basic metering functions, whereas other metering devices provide advanced metering functions, as well as communications functions.
It may be desirable to provide advanced metering and communications functions to a metering device that provides only basic metering functions. One option is to redesign the meter to provide the additional functions. However, this option may require extensive design and testing, which may be costly and time consuming. Hence, other solutions are needed for easily upgrading a basic metering system with advanced functionality.